Public Release: 4-Feb-2015 CognitionPigeon power
A new University of Iowa study finds pigeons can categorize 128 photographs into 16 categories of natural and manmade objects, a skill researchers say is similar to the mechanism children use to learn words.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, NIH/National Eye Institute, NIH/National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

Public Release: 4-Feb-2015 NeuropsychopharmacologyResearchers identify peptide that reduces urge to eat
Researchers have identified a peptide and hormone that when administered to a specific area of the brain may reduce the desire for food. The study, which appears in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, may one day lead to medications that treat obesity and binge eating disorders.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, NIH/National Institute on Drug Abuse, Peter Paul Career Development Professorship, Peter McManus Charitable Trust, Boston University

Public Release: 4-Feb-2015 New England Journal of MedicineFinal results of the HIV prevention study VOICE are published in NEJM
Researchers who conducted the VOICE study involving more than 5,000 women in Africa detail in the NEJM how none of the products (tenofovir, Truvada and tenofovir vaginal gel) was effective in preventing HIV and the extent that women did not use them. Tests of blood indicate nonuse began early; many women never used the products. Yet, among women in the tenofovir gel group whose blood tests indicated use, HIV risk was reduced by 66 percent.
NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH/Eunice Kennedy Shriver Institute for Child Health and Human Development, NIH/National Institute of Mental Health

Public Release: 3-Feb-2015 Journal of NeuroscienceResearchers identify key mechanisms underlying HIV-associated cognitive disorders
New findings, published today by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, open the door to the development of new therapies to block or decrease cognitive decline due to HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders, estimated to affect 10 to 50 percent of aging HIV sufferers to some degree.
NIH/National Institute of Aging, NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, NIH/National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Public Release: 2-Feb-2015 Nature NeuroscienceScientists view effect of whisker tickling on mouse brains
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University have succeeded in peering into the brains of live mice with such precision that they were able to see how the position of specific proteins changed as memories were forged. The technique has broad applications for future studies on learning and on what goes wrong in disorders like autism, Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Public Release: 27-Jan-2015 Journal of Autism and Developmental DisordersMRIs link impaired brain activity to inability to regulate emotions in autism
Researchers from the UNC School of Medicine have found that -- when it comes to the ability to regulate emotions - brain activity in autistic people is significantly different than is brain activity in people without autism. Using fMRI, the researchers showed that symptoms including tantrums, irritability, anxiety, and depression seem to have a biological, mechanistic basis.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, NIH/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, UNC-CH Graduate School Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Clinical Translational Core of the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabibilities

Public Release: 26-Jan-2015 Social Cognitive and Affective NeuroscienceBrain study sheds light on how children with autism process social play
Brain scans confirm significant differences in play behavior, brain activation patterns and stress levels in children with autism spectrum disorder as compared with typically developing children.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health

Public Release: 21-Jan-2015 NatureNYU researchers reveal how the mundane can be meaningful -- and remembered
It's not surprising that our memories of highly emotional events are quite strong. But can these events change our memories of the past? New York University researchers report that emotional learning can lead to the strengthening of older memories.
National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institute of Mental Health

Public Release: 19-Jan-2015 Journal of Family PsychologyEarly parental program improves long-term childhood outcomes
Children whose parents participated in a prenatal program aimed at enhancing couples' co-parenting relationship were better adjusted at age seven than children whose parents were assigned to a control group, according to Penn State researchers.
NIH/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH/National Institute of Mental Health

Public Release: 15-Jan-2015 Journal of PediatricsDifficult behavior in young children may point to later problems
It's normal for a very young child to have tantrums and be otherwise disruptive, but researchers have found that if such behavior is prolonged or especially intense, the child may have conduct disorder. A Washington University team, led by senior investigator Joan L. Luby, MD, recommends that children who exhibit these symptoms be referred to mental health professionals for evaluation and possible intervention.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health

Public Release: 14-Jan-2015 Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesParadox revealed: Cues associated with infant abuse may help reduce stress in adult brain
Neurobiologists at New York University Langone Medical Center and elsewhere found a surprising and paradoxical effect of abuse-related cues in rat pups: those cues also can lower depressive-like behavior when the rat pups are fully grown. These properties may help shed light on why certain cues associated with early life abuse can sometimes reduce stress in those same individuals as adults.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 14-Jan-2015 Molecular PharmacologyScientists develop novel platform for treatment of breast, pancreatic cancer
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have identified a novel synthetic compound that sharply inhibits the activity of a protein that plays an important role in in the progression of breast and pancreatic cancers.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, NIH/National Cancer Institute

Public Release: 13-Jan-2015 eLifeLink between stress and infertility can be broken
Researchers from the University of California Berkeley have identified the hormone linking stress to infertility and miscarriage. Silencing the hormone restores mating and pregnancy success to normal. The findings in rats could be applicable to humans and to endangered species whose survival depends on captive breeding and they offer a new target for further research.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, Foundation for the National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 12-Jan-2015 eLifeBlocking hormone could eliminate stress-induced infertility
Stress is known to interfere with reproduction, but a new study by UC Berkeley scientists shows that the effects of chronic stress on fertility persist long after the stress is gone. This is because a hormone that suppresses fertility, GnIH, remains high even after stress hormone levels return to normal. In rats, they successfully blocked the hormone gene and restored normal reproductive behavior, suggesting therapeutic potential for stressed humans and animals in captive breeding programs.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, NIH/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Public Release: 12-Jan-2015 Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesPeople watching: Different brain pathways responsible for person, movement recognition
Researchers from University College London, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of California, San Diego have found that the ability to understand different movements, such as walking, skipping and jumping, engages different brain mechanisms from those that recognize who is initiating the action.
Published in the Jan. 12 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study illustrates for the first time how individuals with prosopagnosia, or face blindness, are still able to recognize other people's movements.
The Royal Society, National Science Foundation, NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, Wellcome Trust, Marie-Curie

Public Release: 7-Jan-2015 NeuronBrain scientists figure out how a protein crucial to learning and memory works
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found out how a protein crucial to learning works: by removing a biochemical 'clamp' that prevents connections between nerve cells in the brain from growing stronger. The finding moves neuroscientists a step closer to figuring out how learning and memory work, and how problems with them can arise. A report on the discovery appears Jan. 7 in the journal Neuron.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Research Grant Council of Hong Kong, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Public Release: 6-Jan-2015 Journal of Policy Analysis and ManagementChildren's vulnerability reflected in genes
Some children are more sensitive to their environments, for better and for worse. Now Duke University researchers have identified a gene variant that may serve as a marker for these children, who are among society's most vulnerable. The study found that children from high-risk backgrounds who carried a common gene variant were very likely to develop serious problems as adults, but were also more responsive to treatment.
NIH/Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH/National Insitute on Aging, NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, NIH/National Institute on Drug Abuse, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Department of Educat

Public Release: 6-Jan-2015 Molecular PsychiatryNew picture, new insight
Using a different type of MRI imaging, researchers at the University of Iowa have discovered previously unrecognized differences in the brains of patients with bipolar disorder. In particular, the study, published Jan. 6 in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, revealed differences in the white matter of patients' brains and in the cerebellum, an area of the brain not previously linked with the disorder.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, NIH/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, US Department of Veterans Affairs, NARSAD

Public Release: 5-Jan-2015 Cell ReportsImaging linking cell activity and behavior shows what it means for mice to have sex in mind
An automated method (much more sensitive than fMRI) to detect the activity of neurons during specific behaviors, at the resolution of individual brain cells throughout the entire mouse brain, has been successfully demonstrated. A team shows brain activation patterns when male mice perform two critical tasks: recognizing other individuals and determining the sex of another individual.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, Simons Foundation for Autism Research, Allen Institute for Brain Science, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Gatsby Charitable Foundation

Public Release: 29-Dec-2014 Clinical Intervensions in AgingPatient self-reporting version of 'blood pressure cuff' for dementia is reliable and valid
Patient self-reporting version of the Healthy Aging Brain Care Monitor -- a primary-care tool to measure cognitive, functional and psychological symptoms -- is user-friendly, reliable and valid, including being sensitive to symptom change, according to new Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University Center for Aging Research study.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, NIH/National Institute on Aging

Public Release: 23-Dec-2014 Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent PsychiatryCould playing Tchaikovsky's 'Nutcracker' and other music improve kids' brains?
In a study called 'the largest investigation of the association between playing a musical instrument and brain development,' Medicine Vermont child psychiatry team has found that musical training might also help kids focus their attention, control their emotions and diminish their anxiety.
NIH/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH/National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Public Release: 19-Dec-2014 NeuropsychopharmacologyEarly exposure to antidepressants affects adult anxiety and serotonin transmission
Now, a UCLA team has studied early developmental exposure to two different antidepressants, Prozac and Lexapro, in a mouse model that mimics human third trimester medication exposure. They found that, although these serotonin-selective reuptake inhibiting antidepressants were thought to work the same way, they did not produce the same long-term changes in anxiety behavior in the adult mice.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, Shirley and Stefan Hatos Foundation, UCLA Weil Endowment Fund

Public Release: 18-Dec-2014 Child DevelopmentEarly caregiving experiences have long-term effects on social relationships, achievement
A new study has found that sensitive caregiving in the first three years of life predicts an individual's social competence and academic achievement, not only during childhood and adolescence, but into adulthood. The study used information from 243 individuals who were born into poverty, came from a range of racial/ethnic backgrounds, and had been followed from birth to age 32 as part of the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaption.
NIH/Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, University of Minnesota